tempus fugit

Max Boot: “It is too early to conclude that Trump is the worst president ever… but it is not too early to conclude that he is the worst person ever to be president.”

2018-10-16

Max Boot, said to be a conservative columnist, made the above statement in a column for the Washington Post on October 3. The inciting incidents for which Trump received the “worst person ever” prize were the revelations by the New York Times that he had received the equivalent of $440 million from his father practically tax-free (putting the lie to his claims that he is a self-made man) and his public mockery of Christine Blasey Ford for reporting Brett Kavanaugh’s drunken attempt at sexual assault upon her to a Senate Judiciary Committee.

Here is another quote from Max Boot’s column: “[H]e is a liar, a cheat and a bully without an ounce of dignity, empathy or decency. In place of his soul he has a black hole. The only way he can make himself feel better — to fill the emptiness inside — is to abuse those weaker than himself. He is a monster.” I’m sure that, if Boot is a conservative and/or a Republican, he can be described as a “never Trump” Republican.

Mr. Boot appears to describe himself personally as a conservative, because he will be coming out shortly with a book titled: “The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right.” However, I didn’t do the necessary research to determine if he supported Trump in the beginning or was immediately turned off– somehow I think it was the latter.

Oddly, people who would be anathema to us under ordinary circumstances have appeared in a softer light since the onslaught of Trumpism. Those who side with Trump, especially long-term politicians like Mitch McConnell (who is married to Elaine Chao, the present Secretary of Transportation) can be considered the most repellent of human beings and lesser conservatives like John McCain look like heroes in comparison.

There is a big difference between someone you disagree with politically and someone who ignores all ethical and legal red lines in his pursuit of money and political power. Fundamental dishonesty in dealing with political problems is far worse than principled opposition to abortion, no matter how mistaken that opposition can be shown to be. It may come down to the difference between telling a falsehood because one has been misled and outright lying.

By the way, speaking of Mitch McConnell, it seems that he has recently stated that the federal budget deficit is “disturbing.” His response: “entitlement” programs need to be cut. This is Trump-logic: after a tax “reform” law was put in place, receipts from corporations suddenly dropped by a third and 83% of the tax breaks in the law went to the top 1% of Americans. No wonder the deficit is ballooning despite Obama’s eight-year efforts to rein it in (no kidding!) I (and others) say how about we get the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes for Social Security and Medicare, as well as infrastructure and the military, rather than allowing the deficit to get out of hand by cutting taxes and then using that as an excuse to cut aid to the poor and elderly?